1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and system for conducting maintenance and, more particularly to a method and system for conducting maintenance on machines within an area-wide operating structure.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past, maintenance concepts were focused only on production-oriented companies. Maintenance concepts were used with the goal of optimizing servicing and maintenance of machines and facilities. The most widely used concepts for management and organization maintenance are Total Productive Maintenance (TPM—used extensively in Europe and Asia) and Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM—used in the USA). The goal of these concepts is to improve the reliability of the equipment through preventative or condition-oriented maintenance and to extend the life cycles of this equipment. With the just-in-time concepts of the 90's, the demand for maintenance in the field of process security gave new meaning to the word maintenance when dealing with the concepts of increased quality, flexibility and cost reduction.
Maintenance work has not been taken into consideration in any of the systems known up to now. Furthermore, an integrated system in which maintenance measures and strategies can be summarized has never before been developed for area-wide operating infrastructure companies, such as the Deutsche Bahn A G (the German rail operator).
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a management system developed in Japan which optimizes a company's operations through combined creative input from all employees. TPM combines the concepts of Total Quality Control/Management (TQC/TQM) and Total Employee Involvement (TEI) with preventative maintenance. The main role in the installation of TPM and the activation of company optimization reserves is played by the personnel. All employees—from simple production workers and maintenance employees to management staff—are motivated towards and trained for active involvement in the company.
TPM includes the following five elements: maximization of equipment efficiency, productive maintenance throughout the entire life cycle of the equipment, the involvement of all departments in the company, input from all employees (from manager to machine operator) and motivated management of autonomous work in small teams. The three main points of TPM, which sum up the whole concept and explains the meaning of the word “total” in Total Productive Maintenance, are: 1) total (equipment) effectiveness; 2) complete maintenance system; and 3) total participation of all employees.
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is an approach for organizing and operating a tight, cost-effective, “lean and mean” maintenance program based on respective functions or use of every physical asset. RCM can be defined as an approach to maintenance that combines reactive maintenance, calendar-based maintenance, condition monitoring and proactive maintenance in order to ensure maximum capacity and availability with minimum costs for the operator. RCM links the enterprise (organization) to the facility equipment (physical assets) and the employees who operate and maintain the equipment. FIG. 1 includes a table that shows a comparison of these two systems.
It is difficult to apply these management and organization concepts to organizations with area-wide operations for several reasons. These concepts deal with infrastructure systems, such as streets and rail networks or sewage and power line systems, which have no complex machines at specific locations. The locations are subject to natural parameters. The maintenance teams work independently and have few possibilities to communication with each other. Numerous regulations and guidelines must be applied. Safety has top priority. Availability directly influences the satisfaction of the customer and lack of availability leads to low product quality. Former infrastructure, utility and local transportation companies are currently experiencing financial difficulties due to privatization.